134 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



till, by the application of warmth, they discovered, 

 too late, the fatal injury which some of their ex- 

 tremities had suffered. I say that this shows the 

 use of pain, and that we stand in need of such a 

 monitor. I believe also that the use extends far- 

 ther than we suppose, or can now trace ; that to 

 disagreeable sensations we, and all animals, owe, 

 or have owed, many habits of action which are 

 salutary, but which are become so familiar, as not 

 easily to be referred to their origin. 



^Pain also itself is not without its alleviations. 

 It may be- violent and frequent ; but it is seldom 

 both violent and lon^-continued : and its pauses 

 and intermissions become positive pleasures. It 

 has the power of shedding a satisfaction over in- 

 tervals of ease, which, I believe, few enjoyments 

 exceed. A man resting from a fit of the stone or 

 gout, is, for the time, in possession of feelings 

 w^hich undisturbed health cannot impart. They 

 may be dearly bought, but still they are to be set 

 against the price. And, indeed, it depends upon 

 the duration and urgency of the paiu, whether they 

 be dearly bought or not. I am far from being 

 sure that a man is not a gainer by suffering a mo- 

 derate interruption of bodily ease for a couple of 



32 This cliai)ter, wc are told by Dr. Fenwick in his sketch of 

 Dr. Clark's life, " was written when Dr. Paley was suffering u:i- 

 der sever-! attacks of a p-iinful disorder under which he had long 

 lahourcd, and which afterwards proved fatal." Dr. Fenwick just- 

 ly remarks upon tlic additional interest which this circumstance 

 conununicates to the author's remarks upon the iultrruptions of 

 pain. — r.Ieadly's Memoirs of Paley, p. 204. 



